Magnetic recording disk drive with method for recovery of data from failed data sectors

ABSTRACT

A magnetic recording disk drive determines the locations of defective bits in a failed data sector, and allows for the error correction code (ECC) to correctly decode the data from the sector. After a sector has failed decoding, the digitized waveform and the read channel state from the failed sector are stored in memory. A nondata pattern is written to the failed sector and read back to determine the locations of the defective data bits in the failed sector, which are then used to update the read channel state. The data pattern from the failed sector, with the identified bit error locations, is attempted to be decoded. If the decoding is successful then the sector is marked as bad and the correctly decoded data pattern is written to a different region of the disk, for example physical sectors specifically intended for use as spare sectors.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to magnetic recording disk drives,including disk drives with bit-patterned-media (BPM) where each data bitis stored in a magnetically isolated data island, and more particularlyto a disk drive that can recover written data from data sectors thathave hard bit errors, such as defective data islands in BPM.

2. Description of the Related Art

Magnetic recording hard disk drives with bit-patterned-media (BPM) havebeen proposed to increase the data density. In BPM, the magneticmaterial on the disk is patterned into small isolated data islandsarranged in concentric data tracks. Each island contains a singlemagnetic “bit” and is separated from neighboring islands by anonmagnetic region. This is in contrast to conventional continuous-mediawherein a single “bit” is composed of multiple weakly-coupledneighboring magnetic grains that form a single magnetic domain and thebits are physically adjacent to one another. The data islands in thetracks are grouped into data sectors.

The writing of data to the data islands in the data sectors alsoincludes the writing of parity bits or error correction bits. The use ofan error correction code (ECC) in disk drives is well-known and involveswriting parity bits or error correction bits at the ends of data sectorsor data tracks, where the parity bits or error correction bits arecomputed from the data to be written, using an algorithm, like one ofthe well known ECC algorithms. When the data is read back from a sectorthe ECC detects errors and uses the error correction bits to correct theerrors. Examples of error correction codes used in magnetic recordingdisk drives include block codes such as Reed-Solomon (RS) codes andconvolutional codes such as low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes.

The ECC can successively decode the written data provided the number ofincorrect bits falls below some threshold. However, it is well knownthat the allowed number of bit errors increases if the ECC is providedwith pointers to unreliable bits or suspected bad bits. In BPM,defective data islands are a source of unreliable bits. In perpendicularmagnetic recording (PMR) and heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) onconventional continuous-media, the unreliable bits may arise fromdefects in the continuous magnetic recording layer, such as asperitiesor local grain irregularities. In BPM combined with HAMR defective dataislands are also a source of unreliable bits. These unreliable sectionsof media can lead to “hard errors”, i.e., errors that cannot becorrected by rereading because the media is improperly magnetized. Thehard errors can result in data sector failures, i.e., the inability tocorrectly read back the data from the sector. Identifying the unreliablebits can allow the sector to be decoded properly. One approach toidentifying defective data islands is to map the entire disk, typicallyduring manufacturing or disk drive idle time, and catalogue thelocations of the defective islands. However, tracking defective dataislands in this manner is time and memory-space consuming and isineffective if defects get created during operation.

What is needed is a disk drive that is able to determine the location ofdefective bits after a sector failure so that the ECC can decode thedata written in the failed sector.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a disk drive that determines the locations ofdefective bits in a failed data sector, such as defective data islandsin BPM, and allows for the error correction code (ECC) to correctlydecode the data from the sector. After a sector has failed decoding, thedigitized waveform and the read channel state from the failed sector arestored in memory, such as a buffer region of memory, to be retrievedlater. The data sectors in adjacent tracks that are adjacent to thefailed sector are optionally read and decoded, and also stored in thebuffer. Then a first predetermined nondata pattern is written to thefailed sector and read back. A comparison of the readback pattern withthe pattern intended to be written reveals locations of the defectivebits in the failed sector. If the number of bit errors exceeds athreshold (E_max) which the ECC is not capable of handling, the sectoris marked as failed and the drive informs the customer of theunrecoverable error. One or more additional different predetermined datapatterns can be written and read back before concluding that the numberof bit errors exceeds E_max. However, if the number of bit errors isbelow E_max, then the identified error locations are used to update theread channel state. The original read channel state from the failedsector is recalled from the buffer and the bits at the identified errorlocations are marked as unreliable bits, for example, defective dataislands in BPM, that could be hard bit errors in the failed sector. Anattempt is made to decode the data pattern from the failed sector withthe identified unreliable bit locations. If the decoding is successfulthen the sector is marked as bad and the correctly decoded data patternis written to a different region of the disk, for example physicalsectors specifically intended for use as spare sectors. If the data insectors in tracks adjacent to the failed sector were also stored in thebuffer, then this data is rewritten back to the disk.

For a fuller understanding of the nature and advantages of the presentinvention, reference should be made to the following detaileddescription taken together with the accompanying figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a patterned-media magnetic recording diskdrive (HDD) operable with the method according to this invention.

FIG. 2A shows an N-bit data sector with a portion of the disk magneticrecording layer having discrete spaced-apart data islands, each with anup or down magnetization, as indicated by the arrows.

FIG. 2B shows the decoded data for the N-bit data sector from themagnetized data islands in FIG. 2A, where an up magnetization is a 1 anda down magnetization is a 0.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of the method of the invention.

FIG. 4A is a block diagram of a portion of the disk drive read channelillustrating the channel state tracker.

FIG. 4B is a portion of a table of the output of the detector block forthree bits.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a nondata pattern that is intended to bewritten to the failed sector and the decoded pattern when it is readback showing an unreliable bit.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a patterned-media magnetic recording diskdrive (HDD) 10 operable with the method according to this invention. TheHDD 10 includes a hard disk controller (HDC) 12 that can include and/orbe implemented by a microcontroller or microprocessor. The controller 12runs a computer program that is stored in semiconductor memory 14 andthat embodies the logic and algorithms described further below. Thememory 14 may be separate from controller 12 or as embedded memory onthe controller chip. The computer program may also be implemented inmicrocode or other type of memory accessible to the controller 12.

The controller 12 is connected to a host interface 16 that communicateswith the host computer 18. The host interface 16 may be any conventionalcomputer-HDD interface, such as Serial ATA (Advanced TechnologyAttachment) or SAS (Serial Attached SCSI).

While the top view of FIG. 1 shows only a single disk 24 and associatedread/write head 22, the HDD 10 typically includes a stack of disks thatare mounted on a spindle 23 and rotated by a spindle motor (not shown),with each disk surface being associated with one of the heads 22. Theread/write head 22 is typically a combination of an inductive write headwith a magnetoresistive read head and is located on the trailing end orend face of a head carrier or slider 30. Slider 30 is supported on theactuator arm 31 by a suspension 32 that enables the slider to “pitch”and “roll” on an air-bearing generated by the disk 24 as it rotates inthe direction of arrow 130. The actuator arm 31 is attached to a rotaryvoce coil motor (VCM) actuator 28 that rotates about pivot 29. Thus asthe actuator 28 pivots, the path of slider 30 with attached read/writehead 22 is not aligned with a disk radius, but is an arcuate path (likethat shown by servo sectors 120 described below).

The disk 24 is a bit-patterned-media (BPM) disk with discretemagnetizable data islands arranged in radially-spaced concentric datatracks, one of which is shown as track 101. Each data track has areference index 121 indicating the start-of-track. The HDD 10 isillustrated as a zone-bit-recording (ZBR) HDD because the data tracksare grouped radially into a number of annular data bands or zones, threeof which are shown as zones 151, 152 and 153, but the invention is fullyapplicable to a HDD that does not use ZBR, in which case the HDD wouldhave only a single data zone. Within each zone, the tracks are alsocircumferentially divided into a number of contiguous physical datasectors, such as typical data sectors 164 in the radially outer datazone 151. Each data sector 164 contains discrete magnetizable dataislands. Each data sector is preceded by a synchronization (sync) field,such as typical sync fields 163. The sync fields 163 are detectable bythe read head for enabling synchronization of reading and writing thedata bits in the discrete data islands in the data sectors 164.

Each data track also includes a plurality of angularly-spaced servosectors 120 that contain positioning information detectable by the readhead for moving the head 22 to desired data tracks and maintaining thehead 22 on the data tracks. The servo sectors in each track are alignedcircumferentially with the servo sectors in the other tracks so thatthey extend across the tracks in a generally radial direction, asrepresented by radially-directed servo sectors 120. The servo sectors120 are nondata regions on the disk that are magnetized once, typicallyduring manufacturing or formatting of the disk, and are not intended tobe erased during normal operation of the HDD. Each of the servo sectors120 in a data track typically contains a servo timing mark (STM) thatindicates the start of the servo sector, a track identification (TID)code, and a portion of a pattern of magnetized blocks or high-frequencybursts that form head position error signal (PES) fields. The PES fieldsare detected by the read head and decoded to provide a PES, which is ameasure of how far the head is off track from the track centerline.Typically there are multiple data sectors 164 located between the servosectors 120. The servo sectors and data sectors may also containadditional timing marks for synchronizing the write clock to the disksurface's velocity and position past the write head.

The electronics associated with HDD 10 also includes servo electronics40. In the operation of HDD 10, the read/write channel 20 receivessignals from head 22 and passes servo information from the servo sectors120 to servo electronics 40 and data signals from the data sectors 164to controller 12. Servo electronics 40 typically includes a servocontrol processor that uses the servo information from the servo sectors120 to run a control algorithm that produces a control signal. Thecontrol signal is converted to a current that drives actuator 28 toposition the head 22. In the operation of HDD 10, interface 16 receivesa request from the host computer 18 for reading from or writing to thedata sectors 164. Controller 12 receives a list of requested datasectors from interface 16 and converts them into a set of numbers thatuniquely identify the disk surface, track and data sector. The numbersare passed to servo electronics 40 to enable positioning head 22 to theappropriate data sector 164. The servo control system enables the headused for reading and writing of bits to be spatially aligned within afraction of a track-pitch in the radial direction of the disk. Thecontroller 12 has electronics that allow read and write synchronization.Namely the reading and writing of bits can be spatially aligned towithin a fraction of a bit cell (e.g., 10%) in the along-the-track,i.e., the circumferential direction of the disk. Such control isessential for BPM recording, but is also needed in the invention toallow for bit tracking.

The controller 12 acts as a data controller to transfer blocks of writedata from the host computer 18 through the read/write channel 20 forwriting to the disks 24 by the heads 22, and to transfer blocks of readdata from the disks 24 back to the host computer 18. HDDs typicallyinclude, in addition to the rotating disk storage, solid state memory(referred to as “cache”) that temporarily holds data before it istransferred between the host computer and the disk storage. Theconventional cache is dynamic random access memory (DRAM), a volatileform of memory that can undergo a significant number of write/erasecycles and that has a high data transfer rate. HDDs may also includenonvolatile memory. One type of nonvolatile memory is “flash” memory,which stores information in an array of floating gate transistors,called “cells” which can be electrically erased and reprogrammed inblocks. Thus in HDD 10, the controller 12 also communicates withvolatile memory 50 (shown as DRAM) and optional nonvolatile memory 52(shown as FLASH) via data bus 54.

The writing of data in the data sectors also includes the writing ofparity bits or error correction bits. The use of an error correctioncode (ECC) in HDDs is well-known and involves writing parity bits orerror correction bits associated with the data sectors or data tracks,where the parity bits or error correction bits are computed from thedata to be written, using an algorithm, like one of the well known ECCalgorithms using Reed-Solomon (RS) and/or low-density-parity-check(LDPC) encoding. The parity bits or error correction bits may be writtenat the end of a data sector or data track, or convolved into thepattern, or elsewhere on the disk. When the data is read back from asector the ECC detects and corrects errors by using the error correctionbits. Any error-correcting decoding scheme that is consistent with theencoding scheme can be used for error detection. One possible decodingblock, shown schematically in FIG. 4A, contains a detector block and anECC block that pass information back and forth. The decoding block isone part of the read channel. In different blocks of the read channel,the data bits can be grouped into symbols or states, such as 12-bitsymbols in a Reed-Solomon ECC decoder or 5-bit intersymbol interferencestates in a Viterbi detector. For simplicity of discussion, thedescription relating to ECC will be described for bit states and bitprobabilities, rather than symbol or state values and probabilities.However, the method described can easily be generalized to symbols andstates.

The ECC can successively decode the written data provided the number ofincorrect bits falls below some threshold (e.g., 5-10%). However, it iswell known that the allowed number of bit errors increases if the codeis provided with pointers to bad bits, suspected bad bits, bad symbols,suspected bad symbols, or suspected bad disk regions. In BPM, as well asfor BPM combined with HAMR, defective data islands are a source of“hard” bit errors. Likewise in continuous-media PMR and HAMR, asperitiesor media irregularities are a source of hard bit errors. Trackingdefective data islands or disk sections during operation of a HDD can betime or space consuming.

FIG. 2A shows a data sector with a portion of the disk magneticrecording layer 200 having discrete spaced-apart data islands 202, eachwith an up or down magnetization, as indicated by the arrows. Dataisland 204 is represented as defective, i.e., unable to be properlymagnetized during writing by the write head, but its intendedmagnetization is a 1. Data island 204 will thus result in a “hard” biterror. Islands 206 are ECC bits located at the end of the data sector.Their magnetization was computed by the ECC from the data to be writtenin the data sector and they are written when the data bits are writtenin the data sector. FIG. 2B shows the decoded data for the N-bit datasector from the magnetized data islands in FIG. 2A, where an upmagnetization is a 1 and a down magnetization is a 0. Bit #3,corresponding to the defective island 204, is shown as correctly decodedas a 1. However, even though the read head may not have detected themagnetization of island 204, or may have incorrectly detected it as a“down” magnetization, the ECC has correctly decoded this bit using theerror correction bits 206. However, if there are also “soft” errors inthe data from the read head, for example bit errors caused by a lowsignal-to-noise ratio, which together with hard errors exceed thecapability of the ECC, there will be a sector failure, i.e., aninability to return user data from the sector.

The method of this invention determines the locations of defective dataislands in a failed sector, such as the bit #3 location of defectiveisland 204, and thus allows for the ECC to correctly decode the datafrom the sector. After a sector failure, a specific predeterminednondata pattern is written to the failed sector and read back todetermine the location of defective islands. The locations of thedefective islands are used as error pointers to the ECC in an attempt todecode the data from the failed sector. The advantage of this inventionover defect tracking and cataloging, which is typically done during diskdrive manufacturing, is that it does not involve the time and spaceoverhead needed with tracking all defective islands in the disk drive.In addition, islands that become newly defective during operation of thedisk drive, after the defects have been cataloged, can also be handled.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of the method. The failed sector recoveryprotocol is enacted immediately after a sector has been deemedunrecoverable through regular means, such as multiple read attempts orrecovery using ECC (block 300). After a sector has failed decoding, thedigitized waveform and the read channel state are stored in memory, suchas a buffer region of memory, to be retrieved later (block 305). Theuncorrectable data from the failed sector must match the uncorrectabledata stored in the buffer. This verification can be made by reading thefailed sector multiple times, and averaging, on a bit by bit basis, toget a best estimate of what the uncorrectable data was. By readingmultiple times and averaging, the effects of random noise, such as readhead noise and electronic noise, are reduced. The read channel stateincludes “soft information”, which is the probabilities of the bitvalues, and the best guess of the bit values, of the decoded bitpattern. More generally, the read channel state includes softinformation about symbol values or Viterbi state values, as isappropriate for the particular read channel implementation.

FIG. 4A is a block diagram of a portion of the disk drive read channelto better illustrate the operation in block 305 of FIG. 3. The read head400 detects the data pattern in the sector as an analog readback signal.The analog signal from the read head is amplified and digitized atamplifier/digitizer 402. The digitized waveform is sent to detectorblock 404 and buffer memory, identified as channel state tracker 406.The detector block 404 generates soft information about the bit valuesand the best guess bit values which are sent to ECC block 408. FIG. 4Bis a portion of a table of the output of detector block 404 for threebits. The digitized waveform values (DWV), for example, can correspondto digital values between 0 and 127, where 0 is the most negative valueand 127 the most positive value. The DWV can be over-sampled so that twoor more values are associated with each bit. The soft information arethe probabilities P(0), P(1), that the DWV for the bit is a 0 or 1,respectively. Likewise, the soft information may contain probabilitiesfor the symbol containing the bit or the Viterbi state of the bit andseveral of its nearest neighbors. The best guess bit values are the bitvalues determined from the probabilities. Returning to FIG. 4A, the ECCblock 408 takes the bit values, performs error correction, and generatesnew bit values if bit errors were corrected. The ECC sends the bitvalues and updated soft information to the channel state tracker 406. Insome implementations, such as in low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)environments, it may be advantageous to average the readback signal.This may be done by reading the analog read signal multiple times (withread synchronization) and averaging the digitized waveform to form anaveraged DWV before attempting to detect the data.

Referring again to the flow chart of FIG. 3, the data sectors inadjacent tracks that are adjacent to the failed sector are optionallyread and decoded, and also stored in the buffer (block 310). This isdone if adjacent track erasure is suspected as the cause of the sectorfailure, or if there is concern that the recovery procedure mightproduce erasure on the adjacent tracks. After the failed sector channelinformation and adjacent track bit values have been stored, the first ofa number of predetermined nondata patterns is written to the failedsector (block 315). First a 1 T tone (101010 . . . ) (alternatingpositive/negative or up/down magnetization) pattern is written to thefailed sector. When writing the 1 T tone, the regular ECC algorithmmight need to be modified or disabled if the ECC would otherwise modifythe actual pattern written to the desired bits on the disk. The writtenregion is read back, and sent to the read channel and decoded (block320). The decoded pattern identifies the number and location ofdefective bits in the written nondata pattern, corresponding to thenumber and location of defective, and hence unreliable, data bits in thesector. Write and read synchronization is maintained during the writeand read processes to allow proper correlation of the written pattern,decoded bit values, and bit locations in the original failed sector.FIG. 5 shows an example of a 1 T nondata pattern that is intended to bewritten to the failed sector and the decoded pattern when it is readback from the failed sector after having been written. A comparison ofthe readback pattern with the pattern intended to be written revealsthat there is a bit error at the location of bit #3. Referring again tothe flow chart of FIG. 3, if the number of errors exceeds E_max (NO atblock 325) then, if all of the predetermined nondata patterns have beenattempted (YES at block 330) the sector is marked as failed and thedrive informs the customer of the unrecoverable error (block 340).However, if the number of written errors is below a threshold, E_max,(YES at block 325) then the identified error locations are used toupdate the read channel state (block 335). E_max can be chosen based onthe ECC strength, or how many errors the ECC can reliably decode. Forexample, E_max can be chosen so that is it is a multiple between 0.5 and2 of the maximum number of errors the ECC can reliably decode. Inparticular, the value of E_max should be constrained properly to keepthe rate at which the sector is incorrectly decoded below an acceptablethreshold.

At block 335, the original read channel state from the failed sector isrecalled from the buffer and the bits at the identified error locationsare marked as unreliable bits, i.e., hard bit errors due to defectivedata islands. For example, referring back to FIG. 4B, bit #n would bemarked as unreliable if P(0) and P(1) were each computed as 0.5.Depending on the read channel decoding scheme, the marking of bits asunreliable could mean either updating the soft information in an LDPCchannel or sending an error pointer to the symbols containing the errorbits in a Reed-Solomon channel. At block 345 the data pattern from thefailed sector is attempted to be decoded. If the decoding is successful(YES at block 350) then the sector is marked as bad (block 355) and thecorrectly decoded data pattern is written to a different region of thedisk (block 360), for example physical sectors specifically intended foruse as spare sectors. If the data in sectors in adjacent tracks that areadjacent to the failed sector were also stored in the buffer at block310, then this data is rewritten back to the disk (block 365).

If the decoding was not successful (NO at block 350), then the methodrepeats, with either the same pattern or preferably with a differentnondata pattern, selected at block 315. The second nondata pattern maybe a 1 T pattern of opposite polarity to the first nondata 1 T pattern,which would identify stuck bits. After reading back the second and anysuccessive nondata patterns (block 320), any new bit error locations areadded to ones identified in the previous attempts. If the previousattempt yields a count larger than E_max (NO at block 325) then thefailed sector is deemed unrecoverable (block 340). The new collection ofbit error locations from the readback of addition nondata patterns arepassed to the read channel to attempt to decode the data pattern fromthe failed sector (block 350).

If the decoding continues to be unsuccessful then other nondata patternscan be tried, including ones in which the write clock phase is shiftedfrom optimal, as listed in block 315. For example, the drive can write a1 T pattern with the write phase shifted by, for example 5%, from theideal write clock phase in either direction. This allows low or highcoercivity data islands to be detected and identified as defective. Themagnitude of the shift can be from 2-20% and incremented accordingly onsuccessive passes and spanning both positive and negative shifts. Otherpossible patterns include 2 T (110110110..), 3 T (111011101110..), andother tones, pseudo-random, and random data patterns. These patterns canalso be time shifted.

The method has primary application to BPM HDDs, because BPM HDDs havewrite synchronization to the precise physical locations of the discretedata islands. This enables the locations of defective data islands in afailed sector to be determined. Similarly, the invention applies to BPMcombined with HAMR. However, the invention is also applicable toconventional continuous-media HDDs, like PMR and HAMR HDDs, providedthey have write synchronization, i.e., the ability to synchronizewriting to precise physical locations on the disk. In a continuous-mediaHDD with write and read synchronization, writing and reading issynchronized to precise regions of the data sectors, each region ofcontinuous media representing a data bit.

The invention is also applicable to a “shingled” magnetic recording(SMR) type of magnetic recording HDD. SMR is well-known in the art, forexample as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,185,063 B1 and U.S. Pat. No.6,967,810 B2. In SMR, the write head, which is wider than the read headin the cross-track direction, writes magnetic transitions by making aplurality of consecutive circular paths that partially overlap. Thenon-overlapped portions of adjacent paths form the shingled data tracks,which are thus narrower than the width of the write head. The data isread back by the narrower read head. The shingled data tracks arearranged on the disk as annular regions or bands separated by annularinter-band gaps. When data is to be re-written or updated, all of theshingled data tracks that were written after the track being updated waswritten are also re-written. Thus in this invention, when applied toSMR, when the corrected data pattern is written to a different sector ina band, additional data tracks in that band are also re-written.

The system and method as described above and illustrated with variousblock diagrams may be implemented in conventional digital or analoghardware components or in software or with a combination of hardware andsoftware. The servo control processor, the processor in the controllerelectronics, or other microprocessor in the disk drive, may perform themethod, or portions of the method, using algorithms implemented incomputer programs stored in memory accessible to the processor.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and describedwith reference to the preferred embodiments, it will be understood bythose skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may bemade without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.Accordingly, the disclosed invention is to be considered merely asillustrative and limited in scope only as specified in the appendedclaims.

1. A magnetic recording disk drive comprising: a magnetic recording diskhaving a recording surface with a plurality of circular data trackscontaining data sectors, the data sectors containing magnetizable dataregions, each data region representing a data bit; a write headassociated with said disk surface for writing desired data patterns inthe sectors by generating a magnetic write field to magnetize the dataregions; a read head for detecting the magnetic state of the dataregions in the sectors; a detector coupled to the read head fordetecting the magnetic state of the data regions into data patterns ofdata bits; an error corrector for correcting bit errors in the detecteddata patterns; a controller for synchronizing the reading and writing ofdata to individual data regions; and memory coupled to the controllerand containing a program of instructions readable by the controller forrecovering data written to data sectors containing defective dataregions, the program of instructions undertaking the method actscomprising: (a) determining that a data pattern in a sector cannot becorrected by the error corrector; (b) storing in memory theuncorrectable data pattern; (c) writing a predetermined nondata patternto the sector containing said uncorrectable data pattern; (d) readingsaid written predetermined nondata pattern; (e) identifying the locationof defective data regions in said sector that cannot be corrected bycomparing the read predetermined nondata pattern with the writtenpredetermined nondata pattern; (f) attempting to correct, with the errorcorrector, said data pattern that cannot be corrected by marking bitsrepresenting the identified defective data regions as hard bit errors;and if at step (f) said data pattern can be corrected, writing thecorrected data pattern to a different sector and then marking the sectorfor said data pattern as bad.
 2. The method of claim 1 furthercomprising verifying that the uncorrectable data pattern stored inmemory matches the uncorrectable data pattern in the sector.
 3. The diskdrive of claim 1 wherein the predetermined nondata pattern is a firstpattern and the method acts further comprise: if at step (e) the numberof defective data regions exceeds a predetermined threshold, whereinsaid predetermined threshold is a multiple of the maximum number oferrors that can be reliably decoded by the error corrector, repeatingsteps (c) through (f) with a second predetermined nondata pattern. 4.The method of claim 3 where the second predetermined nondata pattern isdifferent from said first pattern.
 5. The disk drive of claim 1 whereinthe method acts further comprise: if at step (e) the number of defectivedata regions exceeds a predetermined threshold, wherein saidpredetermined threshold is a multiple of the maximum number of errorsthat can be reliably decoded by the error corrector, repeating step (c)by writing said predetermined nondata pattern with a write clock phaseshift.
 6. (canceled)
 7. The disk drive of claim 1 further comprisingverifying that the corrected data is written correctly.
 8. The diskdrive of claim 1 wherein the method acts further comprise: storing inmemory the data patterns from sectors radially adjacent to the sectorthat contains the uncorrectable data pattern; and if at step (f) saiddata pattern can be corrected, then recalling from memory said datapatterns from said radially adjacent sectors and writing said datapatterns from said radially adjacent sectors back to said radiallyadjacent sectors.
 9. The disk drive of claim 1 wherein the errorcorrector is a Reed-Solomon error corrector for correcting bit errors bycorrecting symbols containing a grouping of data bits, and wherein step(f) comprises attempting to correct, with the error corrector, said datapattern that cannot be corrected by marking symbols containing theidentified defective data islands as unreliable.
 10. The disk drive ofclaim 1 wherein the error corrector is a low-density-parity-check (LDPC)error corrector for correcting bit errors by correcting statescontaining a grouping of data bits, and wherein step (f) comprisesattempting to correct, with the error corrector, said data pattern thatcannot be corrected by marking states containing the identifieddefective data islands as unreliable.
 11. The disk drive of claim 1wherein the recording surface of the disk is a continuous-media magneticrecording surface.
 12. The disk drive of claim 1 wherein the magneticrecording disk is a bit-patterned-media (BPM) disk and wherein the dataregions are discrete data islands.
 13. The disk drive of claim 1 whereinthe disk drive is a heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) disk drive.14. The disk drive of claim 1 wherein the disk drive is a shingledmagnetic recording (SMR) disk drive.
 15. A bit-patterned-media (BPM)magnetic recording disk drive comprising: a magnetic recording diskhaving a recording surface with a plurality of circular data trackscontaining data sectors, the data sectors containing discretemagnetizable data islands; a write head associated with said disksurface for writing desired data patterns in the sectors by generating amagnetic write field to magnetize the data islands; a read head fordetecting the magnetic state of the data islands in the sectors; adetector coupled to the read head for detecting the magnetic state ofthe data islands into data patterns of data bits; an error corrector forcorrecting bit errors in the detected data patterns; a controller forsynchronizing the reading and writing of data to individual dataislands; and memory coupled to the controller and containing a programof instructions readable by the controller for recovering data writtento data sectors containing defective data islands, the program ofinstructions undertaking the method acts comprising: (a) determiningthat a data pattern in a sector cannot be corrected by the errorcorrector; (b) storing in memory the uncorrectable data pattern; (c)writing a predetermined nondata pattern to the sector containing saiduncorrectable data pattern; (d) reading said written predeterminednondata pattern; (e) identifying the location of defective data islandsin said sector that cannot be corrected by comparing the readpredetermined nondata pattern with the written predetermined nondatapattern; and (f) attempting to correct, with the error corrector, saiddata pattern that cannot be corrected by marking bits representing theidentified defective data islands as hard bit errors; and if at step (e)the number of defective data islands exceeds a predetermined threshold,wherein said predetermined threshold is a multiple of the maximum numberof errors that can be reliably decoded by the error corrector, repeatingstep (c) one of writing said predetermined nondata pattern with a writeclock phase shift and writing a second predetermined pattern differentfrom said first pattern, and then repeating steps (d) through (f). 16.(canceled)
 17. (canceled)
 18. (canceled)
 19. The disk drive of claim 15wherein the method acts further comprise: if at step (f) said datapattern can be corrected, then marking the sector for said data patternas bad, and writing the corrected data pattern to a different sector.20. The disk drive of claim 19 wherein the method acts further comprise:storing in memory the data patterns from sectors radially adjacent tothe sector that contains the uncorrectable data pattern; and if at step(f) said data pattern can be corrected, then recalling from memory saiddata patterns from said radially adjacent sectors and writing said datapatterns from said radially adjacent sectors back to said radiallyadjacent sectors.